


Dawn Kisses

by misura



Category: The Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay
Genre: Missing Scene, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 11:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5455445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It happens only once.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dawn Kisses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Syksy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syksy/gifts).



From the very beginning, it had been understood that what had happened between them this night would not be spoken of again, either publicly or privately.

Thus, it was not expected for one of the men to look at the other and say, "I do believe you owe Jehane a poem, after that."

"Not you?" the other asked, his tone conversational.

The sky outside showed the first hints of dawn approaching already; very soon now, whatever this had been would end, or at least be locked away again, kept hidden both from those who would not understand and those who would understand all too well.

"My wife," Rodrigo Belmonte said clearly, "does not care for poetry. Or poets," he added, after a moment. "It may be one of her few flaws, if it is, in fact, a flaw." He sounded and looked more thoughtful now, less like a man who had decided that for one night, he might forget duty and honor in choosing love, instead - which held its own kind of honor, of course.

There would be no guilt, Jehane decided. She was glad of that. "If I want a poem, I'll ask for it."

"What if you want a poet?" Rodrigo asked. He was in the process of looking for his clothes - or perhaps more accurately, looking _at_ his clothes. There had come a moment, the night before, when to think clearly had ceased to be possible, but it had come a considerable time after they had discarded their clothes. "Will you ask then, too?"

A woman who did not care for poetry would not, it went without saying, have consented to marry a man whom others would consider a poet.

"Yes," Jehane said, knowing it to be true. Knowing, also, that she would not ask tomorrow, or the day after that. Soon, though. Before this season would end.

Always assuming he did not ask her first. For all that people would remember him for things other than his poetry though, Ammar ibn Khairan _was_ a poet. More, he was an intelligent man.

"Good," Rodrigo said. "He will be a lucky man, I think. Your poet."

He was, it occurred to Jehane, already creating a certain distance between them, ensuring that certain things that had happened once would not occur a second time or, worse, grow to become a habit.

"Yours, too, for a while yet," Ammar said. He did not say, _come back to bed_.

Nevertheless.

"I really will have to introduce the two of you to my wife."

Under the circumstances, it was perhaps the most absurd thing he might have said, for all that Jehane did not doubt the sincerity of the words, the intention.

"I shall look forwards to it," Ammar said, sounding equally sincere.

"You won't change her mind about poetry, you know. I am telling you this," Rodrigo said, "because as amusing as it would be to see you try, I do consider you a friend and I would spare you the humiliation of failure."

There was, Jehane thought, a little less sincerity in this statement than the previous one.

"How does your wife feel about doctors?" Not the question she should have asked, possibly; few people looked at Jehane and saw her as a doctor first - even a female doctor.

"Very well, I am sure. I imagine the two of you will have much to talk about, although of course you won't be able to talk her out of killing me. In fact, it's probably best if you don't even try."

"I won't, then." She said it blandly.

"Good."

"I will," Ammar said, "undertake to amuse you, I believe. If you have no objection."

"None at all," said Rodrigo, and then he did come back to bed, his clothes still where he had left them the night before.


End file.
